Film

The Half of It

Name: The Half of It
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, Alexxis Lemire, Enrique Murciano, Wolfgang Novogratz

A quiet, literate teen romance that borrows Cyrano de Bergerac's shape and gives it a queer, small-town twist. Ellie ghostwrites love letters for a boy she barely knows, only to fall for the girl he's wooing herself. It's funny, melancholy, and unusually thoughtful about friendship, class and identity — a coming-of-age film that trusts silence as much as dialogue. Best for anyone who wants romance a little sad and a lot smart.

TMDb rating

7.1

If you liked this

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Hailee Steinfeld's prickly, grief-stricken teenager captures the same specific ache of feeling unseen and awkward, with jokes as sharp as the sadness underneath.

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Same generation, same overachiever anxiety, but turned up into a loud, filthy, big-hearted friendship comedy — great if you want the humor without the heartbreak.

But It trades melancholy for chaos; if you loved the stillness of The Half of It, this will feel like a different species of movie.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Shop Around the Corner1940

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Another teen romance built on a classic text — Shakespeare instead of Rostand — with a fake courtship that becomes real, breezier and sillier but with the same bones.

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Shares the introspective, letter-writing, outsider-looking-in sensibility, and the same sense that being smart and unseen in high school is its own quiet tragedy.

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But It's broader and more farcical, with none of the quiet ache — good company, but an entirely different mood.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post2018

A more serious, unflinching look at a queer teenager navigating an unwelcoming world, sharing The Half of It's interest in repression, identity and the cost of hiding.

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Happiest Season2020no page yet

A glossy studio queer rom-com with big laughs and a starry cast — good if you want the reassurance of a lighter, more mainstream happy ending.

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Roxanne1987

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